SAN DIEGO: A California university student who was left handcuffed in a holding cell for almost five days without food or water has reached a $US4.1 million ($4.5 million) settlement with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), his lawyers said.

Daniel Chong, who was rounded up along with eight other people in an April 21, 2012, drug raid at a San Diego area home, has said that he was forced to drink his own urine and nearly died after being placed in the cell and apparently forgotten.

What happened to Daniel Chong should never happen to any human being on the face of the planet.

After the ordeal, the 24-year-old student of the University of California, San Diego, spent five days in a San Diego hospital, three of them in intensive care. Last year, he filed a $US20 million claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against the DEA.

US student Daniel Chong was awarded $US4 million after being forgotten in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell for more than four days. Photo: K.C. Alfred

In San Diego on Tuesday, his lawyers, Eugene Iredale and Julia Yoo, said they had settled that claim with the DEA for $4.1 million.

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"To its credit, the government has responded by acknowledging responsibility, apologising personally to Daniel and instituting changes in policies regarding safety checks for prisoners in temporary holding cells at DEA facilities," Mr Iredale said. "What happened to Daniel Chong should never happen to any human being on the face of the planet."

A spokeswoman for the DEA said the agency was investigating the incident but referred calls regarding the settlement to the Department of Justice. A spokesman there could not immediately be reached for comment.

The DEA previously acknowledged that Mr Chong had been accidentally left in a holding cell, and the head of the DEA's San Diego office said in a statement that he was "deeply troubled" by the incident.

Mr Chong's lawyers have said that he was arrested at the home of friend during a raid by a drug enforcement task force investigating an ecstasy trafficking ring that included DEA agents, sheriff's deputies and San Diego police officers.

Mr Iredale said that once authorities determined Mr Chong was not part of the ring, a San Diego police officer put him in the 1.5-metre by 3-metre cell with his hands cuffed behind his back, telling him: "We'll come to get you in a minute."

Instead, Mr Chong remained in the cell for four and a half days and by the time he was found he was suffering from severe dehydration, muscle deterioration, hallucinations, liver and kidney failure and extremely high levels of sodium, according to his attorneys. He lost almost 7kg during the ordeal.

The DEA said in a statement issued at the time that agents detained nine people including Mr Chong during the raid and seized some 18,000 ecstasy pills, marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and prescription medicines, firearms and ammunition.